You Dropped a Blonde on Me (36 page)
Maxine squeezed her shoulders from behind, utterly and unabashedly pleased with herself. “Gilda didn’t know the people I know, I guess.” Her motto had always been to treat the people who staffed the events she planned well and they’d remember. Thankfully, they’d remembered her and not Finley’s tight fist. Between her old contacts and some of the residents’ former specialties, she’d been able to pull this off. Her eyes assessed the room with deep pleasure.
Food was flowing from the buffet, nonalcoholic punch filled glasses at regular intervals, and the residents were dancing like teenagers. Laughter mingled with the music, couples flocked to the floor when they heard a familiar tune, and there hadn’t been a single complaint she wasn’t doing it the way her predecessor Gilda had.
Mona nodded, brushing crumbs from her rose-colored dress. “Gail’s right. You hit the nail on the head, kiddo. I can tell ya this much, no one was circling the wagon at last year’s hoedown like they are tonight.”
“Square dance,” Mary corrected before she accepted an offer to dance with Ira Weintraub, whirling away on his arm.
“Hoedown, showdown, square dance. Whatever. All I know is it had hay involved. It wasn’t near this nice, Maxie. I’m pretty proud right now. Look at you, would ya? Ten months ago you were a sniveling pansy. Tonight, you’re prom queen again. A prom queen with a
job,
” Mona added with a cackle. “Who needs the Talleywhacker now?”
job,
” Mona added with a cackle. “Who needs the Talleywhacker now?”
Maxine didn’t bother to hide her smile.
Yeah. Look at me.
Yeah. Look at me.
There’d been a bitter point in her divorce journey where she’d been determined to pay Finley back by getting on her feet to spite him. Tonight, her minor success hadn’t produced the kind of victory she’d once thought she’d cheer. An in your face, take that sort of victory.
In fact, Finley hadn’t crossed her mind at all. Not once. This was all hers. This, Maxine realized, wasn’t about showing Finley anything. She’d become indifferent to him, so far removed from the life she’d once led with him she couldn’t even remember what had attracted her to him in the first place.
Her accomplishment was about something entirely different, but just as powerful. It was about getting up off your ass and sucking it up, proving to yourself you could actually dance in the puddles left behind by the monsoon your life had become. It was about owning your mistakes and then letting it go.
It was about finally realizing you didn’t need to prove anything to anyone but yourself.
It was about moving forward.
And tonight, it was about Campbell, standing across the dance floor after finishing a clumsy foxtrot with the troll lady, catching her eye with a secret glance as he’d done all evening.
It was about considering letting down her guard and just maybe allowing things to happen as they should. That thought left her with a smile when “Moon River” struck up.
Leaving behind her mother and Gail, Maxine made her way across the dance floor to Campbell. Each step closer, a heart-pounding trek into undiscovered territory.
This time, Maxine held her hand out to him, her smile more confident than it had been in a long time. “Wanna make up?”
“Not if you expect me to do the foxtrot,” he said, husky, low, his blue eyes glinting.
“Is that what you call what you were doing out here?”
“Hey, making nice does not mean mocking my two left feet on my trip into the light fantastic,” he joked with mock hurt.
She chuckled in return, nervous with jitters. “True that. I take it back, and I promise not to make you foxtrot.” Once more, she held her hand out to him, waiting, fighting the tremble of her fingers.
Campbell’s fingers finally took hers, wrapping them around his own, and he turned toward the dance floor. He spun Maxine around before pulling her into his arms, the sensual whisper of her dress lifting around her knees when she turned to allow him to press their bodies together. Maxine went willingly, her arms wrapping around his neck as though they’d never wrapped around anyone else’s.
Frank Sinatra’s haunting rendition left her chest tight, his dulcet tones swelling in her ears while bubbles, glossy and light, floated around them. Lights twinkled with magical promise, the scent of rosemary and freesia danced in her nose.
Everyone else on the dance floor became a muted batch of colors and sound. There was nothing but her and Campbell. There was nothing but his lips resting on top of her head, his heart pounding out a steady, cadent rhythm against her ear. Whatever his cologne, it tantalized her senses with its hearty maleness, creating a shiver of complete awareness.
She tilted her head back, and blue eyes met green.
His arms hardened around her, one hand splayed across her waist, the other between her bare shoulder blades, evoking so many contradictory emotions—decadence to come, security, soul-deep comfort and warmth. So much warmth, she responded by burrowing deeper into him to absorb it, letting her hips meet the slow sway of his.
Maxine couldn’t keep her fingers from tracing the outline of his mouth, his full lower lip, the smooth skin on either side of his dimples.
Campbell caught her finger between his teeth, a gentle nip that sent a hard wave of desire to her belly. His eyes grew smoky, glazing over in an all-consuming glance she would never forget.
No one had ever looked at her like this—with so many different levels of intimate emotion she couldn’t separate one from the other.
A second later, she found she didn’t want to separate anything when Campbell laid his mouth on hers, unmoving, as though he were deciding whether or not to taste her lips.
They inhaled in unison at the contact, taking in each other’s breath, and the moment, suspended, poised on the brink of a kiss, was pure magic. A brief second of discovery, a tentative glimpse into what was to come. His hand wrapped around one of hers, bringing it to his chest where Maxine curled it into a fist in his, reassured, alive with humming anticipation.
Campbell’s mouth moved against hers in a deliciously slow dance, teasing her lips, skimming them with small hints of promise. His tongue snaked out to dart at hers, stabs of heat rising and falling only to rise again in her breasts, aching and full.
His hard chest heaved against hers when neither of them could keep from deepening the kiss. Unaware of anything but the bend of their bodies and Campbell’s mouth demanding and hard, she became lightheaded, dizzy with the awakening of her dull senses.
Every nerve ending she possessed lit with small sparks of desire, growing as he stoked the flames of her need. A moan of the purest pleasure slipped into his mouth from hers as she clung to him, never wanting to leave the shelter of his strong arms. Never wanting to leave so much, Maxine felt the primal tug of it deep, and so stingingly sharp, it might have frightened her if not for the clapping.
Somewhere in her dreamy haze there was clapping.
Which she might attribute to her gaggle of hormones, happy to be utilized again, if she didn’t know that was ridiculous.
Both she and Campbell freed their mouths and cocked their heads in confusion.
Every village resident, either on the dance floor or at the surrounding tables, was clapping.
Maxine felt Campbell’s chuckle against the cheek she buried in his chest, her cheeks hot red. “I think we shouldn’t let them see us sweat,” he murmured, amusement threading his voice.
“I don’t know what you mean,” she muttered, her mortified words muffled against his chest. “I do know I’m willing to try and escape while my red face is still buried in your chest. You think we can make it to the door like this?”
“Follow my lead,” he responded, prying her from his body to turn her in a circle she almost lost her footing performing. Campbell bowed at the waist, pulling her down along with him. When they rose to gales of laughter, she took a deep breath and let him lead her off the dance floor.
Mona let out one of her infamous wolf whistles when they reached her, her smug grin making Maxine’s face flush with color all over again. Her mother clapped her on the back. “Well, there, girlie, that was some show. I think Mr. Hodge might need some kind of breathing apparatus after that.” She chuckled her words. Her sharp gaze took in Campbell’s. “So does this mean you’re going to do the honor-able thing by my girl and court her right and proper, young man?”
Though unsurprised by her mother’s forward nature, Maxine rolled her eyes. “Mom!”
Campbell leaned down and dropped a kiss on Mona’s forehead. “I think this means your daughter likes me, and we should go have some bundt cake while she recovers from my awesomeness. She really latched on, huh?”
Mona hooked her arm through his, steering him toward the dessert table. “I’ll say. I was getting ready to get the crowbar to pry her off of you if she kept inhaling your lungs like that.”
Campbell’s deep, resonant laughter was the last she heard of them.
Maxine headed to the kitchen, her head clearing with sluggish chugs. She had things to attend to, and it wouldn’t serve her well to allow herself the pleasure of reliving that kiss. She’d only get lost in the absolute rightness of it, lost to the ridiculous unicorns jumping over rainbows in her mind.
Yet the rest of the evening, until the one lingering senior said her good-byes, and right up until the final punch bowl was washed and stored away in the rec center’s pantry, Campbell’s kiss was all she could think of. He only made things more difficult by refusing to leave until he’d moved the last table back into place for bingo next week.
More often than not, Maxine found her eyes on him when he wasn’t looking, soaking up the strain of his muscles under the crisp white shirt he’d rolled to his elbows, her heart skipping beat after beat when he dried the cookie sheets. Thankfully, Campbell had offered to give Mr. Hodge a hand with Jake, telling her to finish up and get some rest.
She flicked the lights off, relishing the quiet when she leaned against the door and gave the room one last scan for debris.
“I’d say you’re one lucky girl,” a voice from out of the dim light left on in the kitchen said.
“Gail?”
“Just making sure that crazy Edna turned all the burners off. She burned down half her kitchen, leaving her George Foreman plugged in.”
Maxine blew a tired breath out from the endless details when dealing with the elderly. “Thanks. I forgot she’s forgetful.”
“So what’re you gonna do about that Campbell?”
She was going to mull this over. She wasn’t going to allow the magic of the night to carry her too far out of her comfort zone, that’s what she was going to do. “What do you mean?”
“I mean, if I was you, and a man looked at me the way Campbell looks at you, I’d do a fast one-hundred-yard dash right to him. And for sure I know what I
wouldn’t
do.”
wouldn’t
do.”
“What’s that?”
“Pick that kiss apart. I’ve been watching you over these last months, Maxine. You’re cautious, and you should be. You’ve had a pretty rough time of it no matter what anyone says about all that money you came from. Nobody deserves a second wind more than you. But you’re smart, too, and still you look for things that aren’t there. That’s not a bad trait unless it keeps you from seeing what
is
there. Campbell’s there.” Gail rooted in her purse. “Here. He forgot his cell phone. I’d bet my dentures he needs it.
Tonight
. Thanks for one of the best times I’ve had in a long time,” were her last words before she pulled Maxine down to give her a quick kiss on the cheek, planted the phone in her hand, and left.
is
there. Campbell’s there.” Gail rooted in her purse. “Here. He forgot his cell phone. I’d bet my dentures he needs it.
Tonight
. Thanks for one of the best times I’ve had in a long time,” were her last words before she pulled Maxine down to give her a quick kiss on the cheek, planted the phone in her hand, and left.
Tears formed at the corners of her eyes when she was left in the silence. Tonight had been chock full of revelations.
What her heart told her to do next was the biggest revelation of them all.
Campbell pulled off his tie and hung it in the closet, grateful for the peace having his father in the city brought. He wasn’t up to an interrogation about Max tonight.
Instead, he wanted to savor the memory of her soft-as-a-pillow lips beneath his, the fullness of her hips, swaying to the tune of “Moon River.”
A smile lifted the corners of his mouth. Max felt it, too. He didn’t doubt that for a second. What he did doubt was what she’d do about it. He could only chase her for so long until she ran too far for him to catch up.
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